4 comments:

I like your previous formulation better (or rather BHO's formulation).

If Bill Kristol, or any Fox Friend, or the typical DK poster or any chronically wrong Obama critic ever offers a constructive and concrete alternative to current or proposed policies which focuses on actions rather than personalities, I'm willing to discuss it with them. (Even though their alternative will most likely be wrong.)

This is what I saw today on facebook posted by "The Coffee Party". I went to one of their meetings when they started, because I liked the idea of discussing things with a wide range of people. But I'm not much of a meetings person, and they didn't seem to have much direction so I didn't go back. I still see their posts, although I frequently disagree with them. Today was the limit. They took the Merry Melodies logo and inserted a cartoon picture of President Obama instead of Porky Pig with the slogan, "That's all, folks!" All because he said 'folks' and hasn't waved his magic wand yet. Annabelle Park really thinks a lot of herself. I can't believe how many of these progressive groups are really vehicles for very big egos.

I still got Coffee Party emails until I opted out this year. I think the motives for CP were pure, and their theory of change is properly focused on participatory democracy, but they seemed to me, once Parks' concept started coalescing into a large enough group and identified (to Annabel's satisfaction) their main political bugaboo (money in politics), to become much more about organizational mechanics (electing officers, setting up meetings, recruiting members, etc.) than they were about actually leading democratic participation. IF they'd just concentrated on promoting civics awareness and political inclusion, I think they would have advanced their mission much more effectively.

The CP website proper seems not to have been maintained after 2012, and they're concentrating on use of social media. This is good for propagation of awareness, but it's horrible if they want to stay dedicated to their principles of civility and rational discussion. They're now getting -and publishing- Facebook quality political analysis, which seems to me a step down even from the big orange blog.

On the plus side, they still seem to be looking for productive, inclusive discussions which try to move the country toward progress on some issues.